Tracking the Tigers with MLB.com beat writer Jason Beck.

Updates on Doug Fister, Drew Smyly

Nothing new on Doug Fister’s status for Saturday’s game against the Angels, but at least we have a good idea who will start in his place if he can’t go.

Manager Jim Leyland confirmed Wednesday that left-hander Drew Smyly was pulled from his start at Triple-A Toledo Tuesday night after an inning as a precaution — not for his own health, but for Fister’s situation. If Fister can’t pitch Saturday, Smyly most surely will.

“I would say that’s probably true,” Leyland said.

Fister, who has an adductor strain in his right groin, was scheduled to play catch on Wednesday off flat ground, not off a mound. That won’t be the final determination, but it should give them an idea how much it’s limiting him.

“There’s still some soreness there,” head athletic trainer Kevin Rand said. “We’re aggressive, but we have to be smart aggressive.”

One of DD’s better moves. (Infante)—Looking like Sanchez too, at least thru 5 innings tonight.
Team needs to support the shut-out effort though.
JP still not my favourite #5 hitter.
2012 = poor years by Boesch, Avila, Young and Peralta. That has pretty much hurt us all year and defined our offense.

Biggest disappointments, for me, are Boesch & Avila. They represented youth, and future. I expected Peralta to do much less than he did last year and Delmon to struggle. I thought Boesch might even lead the team in HRs this year and Avila to solidfy the bottom of the lineup. Boesch and Avila probably haven’t hit 20 homers between them this year. Their at bats have often been anemic.

Very important game IMO. Sanchez has finally given his teammates a reason to be happy with the acquisition. He has pitched an excellent game but has no run support to speak of. This is one of the disconnects our club has. They don’t seem to be in sync with their starters.

Really nice pitching by Sanchez. Quite an assortment of pitches he commands.
Dirks made a mistake in LF but this guy plays the game the right way. Nice bunt hit to lead things off in the 7th.
Yesterday he hit the ball very hard even when he went out. Still unimpressed with Baker and ticked off with DD for shoving a very ordinary (at best) player down our throats. We needed more than that.
The B-Boys are not gonna cut it.

Time for the breath-taking JL “Formula”. Sue be nice to see Benoit shut the door then the middle of our lineup produce for us in the 8th before baseball’s version of an ischemic event (Valverde) mops up for us.

Berry can’t even get a bunt down anymore. If he can’t do what made him very effective at first why bother. But probably the diminished playing time has hurt him. He needs.to learn to do those things in order for him to deserve a place on this team.

Oooh- I like Infante but thought he should have been able to come up with that flare into right. Avila boots the throw from Dirks and Benoit is watching the circus from the mound???(Instead of backing up Avila.) Bad baseball and we are darn lucky that the Jays didn’t score one or more that inning.

That the Aníbal Sánchez I have watched most of the time. He pitch for contact and sometimes the ball will go out but his HR ratio is lower than Scherzer´s ratio.But he is able to fool batters and can strikeout a good number .Here and there he could walk a little too much, stiil has a god ratio BB/SO. He has been called another Washburn. He is a healthy version of Washburn with 5 pitches.
He is a good fielder. He has 2 E with the Tigers in thre weeks.. One with the Marlins for half year.
His career numbers are more or less the same of Scherzer and like him has his moments of inconsistency since the injury.
I expect him to keep it the rest of the season

Chicago has a good team now and trying to predict events based on team schedules is a waste of time. We’ll have to turn up our game to stay in this. Right now, we don’t look like a playoff team. Of course, 8 straight wins like tonight would make the “looking like a playoff team” thing a moot point, but that won’t happen unless we make a sudden improvement. FSN keeps showing stats that make the Tigers look like a heavy hitting team but that’s just not the case.
Texas routes the Orioles. How many times have we routed anybody this year?
Trying to remember that most teams have it worse than us and trying to enjoy the race. It’s a challenge.

Yes the Sox win; a sweep of the Yanks at home; I believe we won 1 of 3 from them at Comerica. They are not going to go away, so if we want the division, we are going to have to get more than five hits and three runs in a game to beat them. Again tonight, another ugly win. This has become the new norm. Hey I’ll give props to Sanchez, but you have to remember this is not the everyday lineup of the Blue Jays. I saw enough tonight to hope that if he can control all of his pitches, Mr. BEL might help out during the last stretch. Defense was downright narley tonight. It’s got to tighten up. Let;s hope that tomorrow JV is starving for a W and we can get out the broom for the Jays. Lots of ugly in the game, but there were three things that I liked about the ugly win:
1. The seventh inning walk by Alex. He ran Dirks ragged with all of the foul balls, but he parlayed that AB into an 11 pitch walk. It put Dirks in scoring position with one out, but the next two guys struck out.
2. Leyland putting Delmon in motion on the Dirks ground out in the fifth. It avoided the double play(again), and allowed Baker to drive in what would become a huge run in the game.
3. Benoit’s fourth clean inning in a row. (No runs, especially HR’s. His location is so much better in these last four appearances.

A win is a win, but they’re not much fun to watch right now. I’m hoping we play 23-7 over the last 30. I’m also hoping that the Sox lose sometime. Good night all!

Something I’ve always wondered. If you start the runner to stay out of the DP, doesn’t it force the hitter to swing at a pitch he may not have swung at, thus possibly resulting in a weak grounder? Then everyone says it was a good move because it kept us out of the DP. ???? Anyone?

Probably a risk. Notice when the jays did they got from 1st to 3rd. I love Miggy but he is going through a bit of a slump, he hasn’t hit much out of the infield and when his does its a popup! No coincidence that the team isn’t hitting.

Definitely a risk, but less so at the higher levels of baseball, especially with guys who throw strikes.because the hitter can generally get his bat on the ball . Also, holes open up when defenders go in motion to address the runner. Frequently you can at least get a guy in scoring position and/or stay out of a DP and/or the runner can advance an extra base on a knock. Often a foolhardy decision at t the high school level, or below, where contol is almost always an issue. Too easy to get someone thrown out, at the minimum. Lastly, the right personnel needs to be in place under the right circumstances.

Well Benoit covered the plate but after Avila misplayed the throw. He is actually supposed to be positioned behind the catcher (not in front of him) to back up the throw if it gets away.
We got away with it, but those kinds of mental mistakes and lack of fundamentals will lose you games that you should win. Conversely, playing good solid, consistent fundamentals will win you games you should lose.
Farrell did the right thing in running on Valverde, Omar has just lost his wheels. And wasn’t that priceless seeing Valverde hit the deck?

The Valverde drop to the ground was a good one, not sure the smartness of them stealing with 2 outs down a run but worked out for us. Good pitching tonight, solid all around, great to see the pen do its job. I need a sweep to claim the upperhand in my household, with the Jays hurting and JV on the mound it should happen. The Sox are going to make us work hard for it, the way we are currently playing we may not be up for the task, time to amp it up. Just when Miggy seems a bit off, he will come back with a multi-home run game, he is not off his game for very long.

I thought the attempted steal was a good move Unfortunately for the Jays , Vizquel stumbled leaving the base. If he had stolen, a single could have scored him. Otherwise, 2 singles or a big knock with 2 outs would have been necessary. Odds would have been poor for the Jays in those circs.

Baltimore Orioles have a rough road ahead of them, Oakland A’s colon just left the MLB, and IMO the NYY right now are not the awesome team we think of them being ( lost 5 of last 7….starting pitching not there).

Nice performance from Sanchez which he desperately needed. Heck of a way to end a ballgame too, nice throw Avila. Hopefully we can get the sweep today with JV pitching. Can’t wait for Sunday, just picked up a nice ticket to see the Tigers but can’t lie excited to see Trout and Pujols. Go Tigs

The game was different from here. Omar asked the ball after his single because it could be the last hit of a long history the will take him to Cooperstown . Aparicio has said Vizquel is a better SS than him. He has the best fielding % of all times and is leading in many defense stats as SS. On one side, the best defensive player ever born in Venezuela, on our side, the best Venezuelan hitter of all times.
Miguel was hitting 500 for the last 10 until a couple of days ago, a little regression was due. He hit the ball strong in the 8th.
I dont see any problem with a catcher hitting 200 if he is able to play defense. And Avila is not good blocking home with throws in the dirt. I dont blame him . I said it last august, the overload will hurt him.
Villareal has the same IS% that Coke had last year. He had a hold in his first game in MLB without making a single throw to home but he is not good with runners on base .Like Valverde he is better with a clean slate.

There is no one in the team that can take that heat of that spot. I think it was you who said it, we better jump to the 6th spot.
There was one information missing in suggesting Peralta for the spot, his split like for most in the team are inverted.
He deserves a longer trial anyway. Little sample and all that.

Agree, El Tigre. No matter who hits 5th, the dropoff from Miggy and Biggy is so large as to cause opposing managers to pitch around both. I think they should stick with Peralta because he has a track record as an RBI man with power and because, if you watch, he is having good ABs most of the time. He hit some balls hard last night with nothing to show. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we have. There’s no one else. If he comes through once in a game, we’ve got runs.

Went to the game Wednesday. Beautiful night at the park and the wife and I had the big seats with leg room. Believe it or not, this was her belated August birthday present. Greektown and the Tigers and the kids at home with the babysitter. The very best thing other than the W? Listening to the crowd and 7th inning strech and the standing ballpark crowd waiting for Valverde to finish it off. You don’t get the flavor of the game unless you go and we live far enough away that it isn’t possible to go more. My hope is that JL can get this team rested enough to be nasty down the streach and still take out the White Sox. It seems to be the greatest balancing act on earth to try and do both. Take a break and still get the job done.

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